It is very common for televisions to have a capability of displaying more than one video display on the television display at the same time. Typically, the display is separated into two or more portions wherein a main portion of the display is dedicated to a first video data stream (e.g., a given television channel). A second video data stream is simultaneously shown in a display box that is shown as an inset over the display of the first data stream. This inset box is typically denoted as a picture-in-picture display (“PIP”). This PIP provides the functionality for a television viewer to monitor two or more video data streams at the same time. This may be desirable for instance at a time when a commercial segment has started on a given television channel and a viewer wishes to “surf” additional selected television channels during the commercial segment, yet does not wish to miss a return from the commercial segment. At other times, a viewer may wish to search for other video content or just view the other content without missing content on another selected channel.
In any event, PIP has a problem in that the PIP is typically shown in an inset box that is overlaid on top of a primary display. The overlaid PIP has the undesirable effect of obscuring a portion of the primary display.
In prior art systems, the PIP may be resized so that the user may decide what size to make the PIP to avoid obscuring portions of the underlying video images. In other systems, a user may move the PIP to preselected or variably selectable portions of the video screen but these systems are unwieldy for a user to operate in real time as the underlying video image changes over time.
In other systems, the PIP may be automatically repositioned to a portion of the primary display in response to detected motion between one frame of the video image and the next frame. However, this system has many drawbacks in that oftentimes, there may be many portions of the screen that have motion, yet there is no system for discerning which portions are more or less important. In addition, many video segments have dialogue portions wherein there is little or no motion, and yet these portions of the video segment may be a primary area of interest in the video segment. In the prior art systems, motion in a background portion of the video segment may cause the PIP to be repositioned over other portions that although, may not have as much relative motion, may still be of relative importance.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.